The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate.
Compass sues Zillow for antitrust violations around private listing policy
Compass has as of Monday, June 23 filed a lawsuit against Zillow for the company’s new listing access standards rules, a policy (taking effect June 30) which has been described as tantamount to a ban of many private listings from Zillow’s platform. The policy states that a listing not listed on an MLS within one business day of public listing will be permanently banned from Zillow.
Both Compass CEO Robert Reffkin and Zillow defended their positions in statements given to RISMedia.
“This lawsuit is about protecting consumer choice. No one company should have the power to ban agents or listings simply because they don’t follow that company’s business model,” said Reffkin.
“Our listing access standards are designed to ensure transparency, equal opportunity, and broad visibility for everyone so sellers can maximize price and time to sell and so buyers have access to all available inventory,” said Zillow in a statement defending its model.
Redfin, another listing portal giant, was listed as a co-conspirator of Zillow’s but not a defendant in Compass’ complaint. The complaint documents an April 2025 phone call between Reffkin and Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, (with other executives from both companies and counsel present) where Kelman expressed his company’s support for Zillow’s policy.
“During the call, Mr. Kelman revealed information suggesting Redfin and Zillow had conspired,” the complaint reads.
Howard Hanna sees partial dismissal of commission-fixing case
After lengthy oral arguments, Judge Wendy Beetlestone of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania today dismissed claims by buyer plaintiffs that Howard Hanna conspired with other brokerages to fix commissions.
The ruling represents another win for the independent brokerage, as it appears willing to fight the commission lawsuits after most of its peers have tapped out. The decision also for now affirms Howard Hanna’s arguments for the appropriate antitrust analysis.
“We are pleased that the Court recognized that the complaint failed to plausibly allege that Howard Hanna entered into an unlawful agreement with its competitors,” a Howard Hanna spokesperson told RISMedia in a statement. “This is the second court to so hold, and we look forward to further victories. Howard Hanna has always focused on putting its customers first and it always will.”
Opendoor settles with investors who claim misleading from company
Opendoor, one of the largest iBuyers, has as of June 2025 agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the company’s own investors. Opendoor, which denies any alleged wrongdoing, has agreed to pay $39 million to these investors.
The plaintiffs—who brought the lawsuit in 2022 and range from individuals to pension funds—claim that Opendoor misrepresented the capabilities of its algorithm to price and sell homes, and its ability to adapt to shifting market conditions. The lawsuit also alleged that the company took actions to disguise this fact, before later making “partial disclosures” about the deficiency of its algorithm. (The plaintiffs’ claims include testimony from eight whistleblowers.)
Among the claims brought against Opendoor is that the company asked real estate agents to help “move” properties that were not selling under algorithmically set prices, that the company’s success in 2020-2021 was driven by manually lowering algorithmically set prices on listings and charging consumers for repairs that were never completed. The plaintiffs also claim that Founder Eric Wu and CEO Carrie Wheeler profited from the misrepresentations by selling Opendoor shares days after touting the company’s capabilities to investors so as to boost the stock price.
As of this time, Opendoor has not agreed to any practice changes as part of the settlement (which awaits final approval from a judge).
Judge blocks the CFPB’s planned settlement rollback
On March 26, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced plans to terminate a settlement it had reached with Townstone Financial. In 2020, the CFPB found that Townstone had engaged in redlining based on the Bureau’s own screening program, and the firm agreed to a $105,000 settlement.
The CFPB filed a joint motion with Townstone to vacate the settlement, where the Bureau would repay Townstone.
“CFPB abused its power, used radical ‘equity’ arguments to tag Townstone as racist with zero evidence, and spent years persecuting and extorting them—all to further the goal of mandating DEI in lending via their regulation by enforcement tactics,” claimed CFPB Acting Director Russ Vought in a press release.
However, on June 12, U.S. Northern District of Illinois Judge Franklin Valderrama blocked this motion, refusing to allow the CFPB to repay the settlement with Townstone.
“To grant the motion based on the arguments advanced by the parties would be to undermine the finality of judgments. That is a Pandora’s box the court refuses to open,” Valderrama wrote.
The CFPB, founded in 2011 to protect U.S. consumers from financial fraud, has faced significant cutbacks under the Trump administration. Vought rescinded 67 guidance documents that had been in place since the agency’s founding.
Keller Williams sued for telemarketing practices
A lawsuit has been filed against Keller Williams in the Western District of New York. The plaintiff, who is seeking class-action, has had their phone on the National Do Not Call registry since 2018. She claims that from April 2024 to March 2025 they received numerous text messages from Keller Williams agents advertising their real estate services, despite having not supplied her consent to receive such messages.
These calls would, the plaintiff argues, constitute a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which protects consumers from receiving telemarketing messages without having first authorized a party to send them such messages, and those who have opted out of receiving calls through the Do Not Call registry.
Keller Williams has previously faced litigation over its telemarketing practices. In 2023, the company agreed to pay a $40 million settlement as part of a class-action lawsuit claiming that Keller Williams agents had texted about 2 million consumers who had opted out of receiving this telemarketing. In April 2024, a judge ruled that Keller Williams itself could be held liable for its agents’ telemarketing.
